I'll bite (another oil thread) YUM
Best deal around here is Castrol 10-40 4 stroke @ WM. Bought some last fall, don't recall the price
Any oil with the correct rating will do.

 

I always forget about Wally World. They have good prices on Mobile 1 for cars too.

 

Rotella T15/40. At WM and most truck stops. Inexpensive and my KLX likes it.

 

Perhaps I'm just being to critical of topping off. I guess I'm just freaked out over how little oil the bike holds so any amount I have to top off freaks me out. The oil is always in the window and its never used more then half a window, if that, to be topped off. Not sure what that translates to in qts but maybe the entire window, min to max, might be 1/2 a quart or so? Anyone know?

 

Well, I guess I'll update this thread. My oil consumption has only gotten worse. Not sure if I've become hyper sensitive or forgot what the Kawi sounds like after listening to music when I ride during the last few months but the piston sounds clacky like my buddies EXC500. I noticed the noise over a week ago and that prompted me to check my valves last weekend. Everything looked perfect so I might order a big bore finally. I'm thinking my recent flogging of 80 miles a day pinned hasn't helped things. What do you guys think? I always thought the KLX engine sounded relatively quiet mechanically speaking. I'm at 18k miles now. Is it a KLX crime to install a big bore and ruin it by my current commute? LoL

 

Without leaks it does sound like a little too much oil consumption for these engines. It's a common scenario for singles to consume more oil, however, when used under longer stretches of higher rpm/higher speed pavement running...just ask any KLR650 owner.

That's pretty low mileage to "need" a piston/rings in most cases. My '06 already had about 18000 miles on it when I installed the OEM 300 cylinder/piston. It now has about 35000. It uses almost no oil between changes that occur at about 2000 miles with Mobil 1 10W-40. I can run mine decently hard on a 2-week off road trip riding lots of single and two-track with little pavement and almost no high speed pavement. I can go that whole 2 weeks usually without even needing to add any oil in about 1200-2000 miles. I think sustained, decently high speed pavement is what will drive oil consumption in a single like ours.

I'll probably be looking at a valve job in the not-too-distant-future, but everything's looking good now.

 

i tend to just change my oil every 500 miles and filter every other oil change. ****? overdoing it? maybe. but the 16 dollars i spend on lucas is a lot more comforting to me than the *** chewing id get if i had to go big bore.. ( not that i wouldnt mind the up in power. ) i do put more dirt time than pavement time on the bike too.

 

Who would be chewing your ***? Would a big bore kit fit into the allowance your wife gives you each week?

 

lol.. NOPE.

 

I talked to Bill Blue yesterday and he didn't seem to be too concerned about my oil consumption. Normally I'd think "well yeah it burns oil when you scream it like I do at high speeds" but since I've owned the bike since new I know what it used to be also. As far as the noise is concerned it almost seems like the top end. It almost sounds like that rattle/knock you can induce if you lug the bike just before it stalls. But it runs great, power is normal, oil looks great, I didn't see anything concerning when I checked the valves, I checked the tension on my manual tensioner. I dunno...might just order a big bore, tare it down, then see where I'm at...?